36 OSTEICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



ratchets, must be put to tighten the fencing should 

 it at any time get slack, as it is everything with a wire 

 fence to keep it as tight as a drum. The wire is hove 

 up at the other end by a piece of wood with two cross- 

 pieces of wood let in it, and used as a windlass. An old 

 yoke with a hole bored through the centre of it does 

 very well for this purpose ; the wire when tight being 

 caught by an implement called an elbow whilst it is 

 being taken off the windlass, and made fast round the 

 post. If you have not an elbow the hole must be 

 plugged, but this is always apt to slip and give trouble. 

 One perpendicular tie of No. 5 wire connecting the 

 wires should be put between each two posts. 



Care should be taken that the men do not simply 

 take hold of an end of wire in the coil and walk away 

 with it. The wire should be carefully uncoiled, not a 

 turn being allowed to slip, as otherwise the wire will be 

 weakened, and it will never come properly straight and 

 stiff. Most workmen now understand how to join the 

 wires. It is done by overlapping the two ends and 

 nipping them with a screw-hammer, or with implements 

 sold for the purpose, then twisting each end with short 

 turns round the opposite wire with an iron with a hole 

 in the end. Where the post-holes are in hard rock they 

 can be cut out with a chisel-pointed steel jumper and 

 hammer. 



